New Haven principal on leave after witnessing students taking 'cinnamon challenge' (video)

NEW HAVEN -- The principal of Clinton Avenue School is on leave after students in the lunchroom experimented with a bizarre fad in which kids try to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon.

Thousands of YouTube videos available online show young people taking the "cinnamon challenge" and then erupting into fits of coughing, gasping for air and, in some cases, vomiting. One school in Pennsylvania banned open-top boots in part to keep students from bringing cinnamon to school for the challenge.

Clinton Avenue School Principal Carmen Ana Rodriguez reportedly witnessed a student or students take the "cinnamon challenge" at lunch and did not do anything to stop it, according to sources who did not want to be identified.

It is believed a student brought the cinnamon to school after seeing a video of other kids taking the so-called challenge.

Here is a video posted to YouTube by a user who says the incident took place at the University of New Haven:

Rodriguez has been placed on paid administrative leave while the district and the state Department of Children and Families investigate the matter.

On Monday, Chief Operative Officer William Clark confirmed Rodriguez is on leave, but he declined to discuss details of the case.

"DCF is aware and they are investigating and we are cooperating with DCF," Clark said.

He said Assistant Principal Sandra Kaliszewski is in charge at the school while Rodriguez is on leave.

Dr. David Katz, director and founder of the Yale University Prevention Research Center, said he was not aware of the fad, but he thinks it is a potentially dangerous practice.

"I think there is a real hazard here. I think for the most part it will cause a lot of coughing and sputtering," he said. "Some will end up aspirating cinnamon and some could have acute respiratory distress."

He said the reason it is so hard to swallow a lot of cinnamon is because the powder is so fine that before it becomes matted down with saliva, there is a risk of breathing it into the lungs.

Foreign materials aspirated into the lung could cause respiratory distress, particularly for kids with asthma. While the risk of death is remote, Katz said it is not out of the question.

On the question of whether ingesting a lot of cinnamon is bad for a person, Katz said he did not believe that would be the case. In fact, cinnamon in small doses can have a positive benefit in controlling blood sugar.